NMSU taps presidental search firm for $90,000

LAS CRUCES — New Mexico State University will pay a search firm $90,000 to assist in finding the university's next president.

NMSU Board of Regents Chair Mike Cheney said the firm, the Association of Governing Board of Colleges and Universities, would lend expertise that other resources can't provide.

"AGB will provide professional representation of NMSU in a competitive hiring marketplace and assist the university in gaining access to the highest quality candidates regardless of market conditions," Cheney said in a press release. "In addition, AGB will make a strong case to candidates who are not necessarily looking for another job, as these individuals frequently make the best hires."

Students, faculty and alumni expressed concern about using a firm during the regents' statewide public forums on the search in December.

"What we get is what they think we should have, not what we need," one alumnus said of search firms during the Dec. 7 forum in Las Cruces.

Hiring a firm is a "horrible use of tuition and money," NMSU student Amanda Weinberg wrote on the Sun-News Facebook page.

"This says a lot about a university who can't find or sustain a president," she wrote. "... I expected more from my school. Glad I'm graduating in May."

Carry-forward savings and unallocated funds from the president's office will be used to pay the firm.

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The firm doesn't replace the presidential search committee, which recommends five finalists, nor the regents' responsibility to select the president, Cheney said in the release.

The university received seven proposals from firms, which a committee evaluated on a point system.

"It's a great, easy $90K for the search firm, because they are simultaneously doing a search for Cal State Fresno's president," Jamie Bronstein posted on Facebook. "They can just recommend the same group of people for both searches."